The Battle of Duality

[iamthat]

Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy

Sat Chit Ananda. Existence Consciousness Bliss. It doesn't need to enter anywhere or into anything because it already is everywhere and everything.

Body, mind and any other object is but name and form of Sat Chit Ananda. The Chit illumines all forms and names (thoughts are also form and name) and through Its illumination the mind perceives and experiences. So mind doesn't posses inherent consciousness but is illumined by the One consciousness. It's just a reflection or manifestation and it's always there but not recognized for what It actually is.

Eye of the eye. Mind of the mind.

Anyway this is the non-dual view, at least of Advaita and that's one of the oldest non-dual spiritual traditions dating back over 1,400 years and in truth its teaching go even further back to the Upanishads dating back another 1,400 years.

If everyone defines it as they see fit it's kind of pointless, confusing and doesn't facilitate understanding by others. This is why I recommend studying the teachings of either one of the great non-dual traditions, Advaita or Buddhism. At least then it's internally consistent and in truth there's really not a whole lot of difference between the two as far as I can tell, though my knowledge of Buddhism is much more shallow .

The problem here is that saying that Chit is Consciousness and that "it doesn't need to enter anywhere or into anything because it already is everywhere and everything" doesn't actually explain anything.

Because if there is only omnipresent Consciousness then how can there be an Observer, since the Observer requires a point of separation from which to observe? Because the Observer too is consciousness.

We may refer back to Advaita, but even the realisation of the omnipresent unchanging Self does not remove the Observer. It is all too easy to repeat the words of Advaita, but repeating the words does not mean that we have penetrated the meaning behind the words.

So maybe we do need to differentiate between absolute Consciousness and relative consciousness. And when people talk about expansion of consciousness then we need to be clear which consciousness we are talking about. Absolute Consciousness (the Chit of SatChitAnanda) may be all pervading and changeless. But our experience is that of relative consciousness, in which expansion is possible.

Peace